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Feathered Tricksters Since the Dawn of Time

In the Bible, crows and their close cousins, ravens, were called “unclean” and with this unshakable spiritual grey cloud these bullied birds have subsequently been associated with the occult, witchcraft, and death. Neither does Islam offer these homeless birds a safe perch to land, as it holds them as one of the five animals we are “allowed” to destroy.

These two major world religions have mostly rebranded the ancient corvids as being dirty, aggressive, noisy, and destructive creatures. (See, for example, Job 38:41) However, these negative attributes mask the bird’s cleverness and problem-solving skills. Keeping a safe distance from humans is a great example of their wit - and it might be this aloofness that has caused them to penetrate so deeply into social myths, cultural folktales, philosophies, and religions of so many ancient peoples.

It is the case that when we look beyond the beliefs of these two relatively modern religions into the creation myths and folkloric systems of comparative religions, we find a time when these birds were not thought of as being spiritual and environmental menaces. In fact, before falling from grace crows and ravens were ancient superstars, key players in creation stories of the universe, carriers of divine light, and the bringers of life force.

Crows and ravens have not always been seen in a negative light. ( CC0)

Spiritual Links Between Humans and Ravens and Crows

In creation myths crows and ravens are always magical, semi-divine and able to shape-change into human or animal form, and sometimes into inanimate objects and even pure light. Often perceived as the keepers of secrets, these birds frequently played “the trickster” archetype, focusing on satisfying their own greed, regardless of the requirements of the greater community. But this wasn’t always as negative as it might sound, because in ancient cultures the trickster was the survivor, the wriest and wittiest, and the most charming and inventive.

As far back as 15,000 BC, human beings living in what is now Europe perceived some kind of spiritual relationship with crows and ravens. This is evident in a painting in Lascaux cave in France. Depicting a person with a crow’s head, archeologists see this crow-man as an insight into the totemic beliefs of the people and how they perceived the journey of the soul after death.

The famous shaft scene of Lascaux depicting a man with a crow’s head looking at a bison. (Peter80/ CC BY SA 2.5 )

In the ambitious 2005 BBC television series, How Art Made the World, professor of classical art and archeology at the University of Cambridge, Nigel Spivey, postulated that “dot and lattice patterns overlapping the representational images of animals are very similar to hallucinations provoked by sensory-deprivation.” He went so far as to say that “culturally important animals and these hallucinations led to the invention of image-making, or the art of drawing.” (S.W. Gray)

From all the thousands of birds, beasts, insects, and reptiles in their environment, the people of Lascaux chose to paint a human transitioning into crow - and this fact alone cements the importance of these birds in European prehistory.

Textually, the earliest reference to crows and ravens appears in ancient Mesopotamian mythology in the famous poem that is considered the first great work of literature - The Epic of Gilgamesh. Here, crows appear in the creation of humanity after the great flood, when Utnapishtim sent out a pigeon and a raven to find land. The pigeon returned empty-handed and the raven didn’t return at all; indicating its success in finding land and founding new life on Earth.

Neo-Assyrian clay tablet. Epic of Gilgamesh, Tablet 11: Story of the Flood. Known as the "Flood Tablet" From the Library of Ashurbanipal, 7th century BC. (Fæ/ CC BY SA 3.0 )

Tracking the Birds’ Flight Path Through Time

In ancient Greece and Rome, the crow represented the god Apollo, and it was he who changed the color of its feathers from white to black in myths. The flight paths of these birds were important for the augurs, ancient priests who derived their prophecies from the birds’ routes. Apollo sent out two crows, one east and one west, to establish the position for the scared Omphalos stone which represented the center of the ancient Greek world at Delphi.

In the 1602 works of Spanish friar and professor, Simon Pedro, we learn that this very same creation dynamic is reflected in South America, in Chibcha creation mythologies, where the creator god Chiminigague cast out two black ravens, east and west, spreading light across the world.

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Ashley

Ashley is a Scottish historian author and documentary filmmaker presenting original perspectives on historical problems in accessible and exciting ways His books articles and television shows explore lost cultures and kingdoms ancient crafts and artefacts symbols and architecture myths and... Read More

Comments

Hi there.
Just want to mention that Islam forbid killing animals, except 5 specific species. One of them is a type of Ravens. Not every raven must be killed, only the ones with a mix of black and white feathers, like this one: https://goo.gl/4hcSxW
Thanks.

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